Carbon fiber/carbon matrix (C/C) composites are used in the aerospace industry for aircraft brake heat sink materials, among other applications. Silicon carbide (SiC) based ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have found use as brake materials and other components in automotive and locomotive industries. These composites may be typically produced using, for example, chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) or chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Such processes generally include placing porous preforms into a reactor and introducing a gaseous precursor to form silicon carbide depositions within the pores of the preform. The SiC may be deposited as a coating or series of coatings wherein a porous sample or preform may be densified with carbon then SiC, or with SiC then carbon.
However, conventional infiltration and/or or deposition processes tend to result in byproduct deposits accumulating within system components of the manufacturing system, such as the exhaust piping. The byproduct deposits may be reactive and even pyrophoric, and thus precautions are warranted to promote a safe manufacturing environment. For example, conventional manufacturing systems are often shut-down for periods of time while users manually clean the components and piping of the manufacturing system to remove the byproduct deposits. This cleaning procedure increases the downtime of the manufacturing system and thus decreases the capacity and throughput of conventional ceramic matrix composite manufacturing systems. Buildup of condensable hydrocarbon tars from conventional carbon CVI processes, although not pyrophoric in nature tends to cause reductions in throughput of the plumbing systems (similar to deposits of cholesterol in a person's arteries).